IMMIGRATION: Will election shift dynamics on issue?

Reeling from a painful election, Republican lawmakers from Inland Southern California and across the nation say they must do more to reach out to an increasingly influential Latino community.

Latino activists say they see a new opportunity to work with the GOP on the long-fought debate over immigration reform.

But it remains to be seen whether the Nov. 6 GOP bloodletting has changed the dynamics surrounding the incendiary issue enough for Democrats and Republicans to reach an accord. Some say most Republican lawmakers have no reason to change their positions on the issue because their districts don’t have significant Latino populations.

Latino voters, polls showed, turned out in record numbers and played a vital role in re-electing President Barack Obama. Locally, Latinos were viewed as key to Democrat Raul Ruiz’s toppling of incumbent Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs. Voters also elected two other Democrats to Inland congressional seats after a decade in which Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, was the only Democratic House member in the region.

“The Latino community cannot be ignored anymore,” said Fernando Romero, coordinator of Justice for Immigrants Coalition of Inland Southern California, a group that includes the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino, immigrant-rights groups and labor unions.

Romero said immigrant and Latino groups need to quickly push for a comprehensive immigration bill that includes a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants.

“We have to start when we’re on top,” he said. “The Republicans are talking about this and there’s a re-energized movement right now. We have to strike while the iron’s hot. If we don’t mobilize people now, it may never happen.”

A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 82 percent of Latinos support a path to citizenship for those here illegally.

Calvert said he doesn’t support a path to citizenship. But he’s open to more limited legalization.

“I think the way forward on this that we need to discuss is some kind of status – work status – that gives them a legal right to be here, not necessarily citizenship,” he said.

Calvert also signaled a willingness to support the DREAM Act, a proposal that would allow illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children to become U.S. citizens if they enroll in college or enlist in the military.

“I think that’s open for discussion,” said Calvert, who has previously opposed the measure. “I sympathize. These kids come here, they’re 2 or 3 years old, been here all their life. It wasn’t their fault they got here.”

State and local immigrant-rights and Latino organizations are planning to request meetings with Calvert and other California members of Congress to discuss immigration, said Arnulfo De La Cruz, statewide director for Mi Familia Vota, a six-state Latino voter-registration effort that has its California headquarters in Riverside.

The meetings would include a presentation of election data showing the growth of the Latino vote in each respective district – and a reminder of how important immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship is to Latino voters, he said.

De La Cruz said that, in view of the election, there is a greater chance that elected officials who opposed immigration reform will be open to changing their minds.

That includes Republicans such as Rep. Gary Miller, R-Rancho Cucamonga, he said. Miller is a national leader against illegal immigration who sponsored a bill to deny citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants.

“We intend to reach out to Republicans, because this will not pass without their support,” De La Cruz said.

Miller’s new 31st Congressional District is 49 percent Latino, and a third of voters are Latino.

When asked whether the ethnic breakdown of his new district would change the way he approaches immigration, and whether he would meet with immigrant-rights groups, Miller responded with a written statement that he would carefully review any proposal “to fix our broken immigration system.”

He offered no details, but said, “My job is to represent the views of my constituents when forming federal policies.”

Two retiring Republican senators introduced immigration legislation Nov. 27. But the measure offers only permanent residency – and not a path to citizenship – to a limited number of young illegal immigrants.

“Any bill that doesn’t have a path to citizenship would set up a very bad situation in America with some people who have a full stake in the country and others who don’t,” she said. “I don’t think it’s good for our country.”

Baca, a longtime vocal supporter of comprehensive immigration reform who lost his re-election bid last month, said he remains hopeful the two sides could come together, particularly because Republicans see strengthening their ties to the Hispanic community as a political imperative.

“I know they realize they have to cultivate the Latino voters,” Baca said. “They realize that if they don’t change the course of history, they’re going to be impacted in future races.”

But Roy Beck, executive director of Virginia-based Numbers USA, which favors greater restrictions on immigration, doubts the election will change the dynamics on immigration legislation.

“Apart from a few districts in California, very few Republicans in the House have significant Hispanic electorates they have to worry about,” he said.

But they risk primary-election challenges from the right if they shift on immigration, Beck said.

“Republican House members would infuriate the base all up and down the line if they would go for a Bush-style amnesty,” Beck said, referring to former President George W. Bush’s support for a path to citizenship.